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「英雄驀進」 (Eiyuu Bakushin)
“Hero’s Charge”
Last week I said this arc probably should have ended that episode, and that may be true over all. This episode did something interesting that redeemed itself, though. Instead of just killing off Keera by hoisting him on his own petard, it did that in a way so as to reveal character as well. And, as Vonnegut once said (and I so often point out), everything must either reveal character or advance the plot. Both at once is a neat trick.
Imagine if Keera had been slain by Diablo. Shera’s reason for stopping Diablo was stupid, by the way; “family” is not enough of a reason for the man who tries to rape and mind wipe you to get off scot free. That’s not to say he should have been summarily executed—society must punish the criminal, or else it’s just murder—but family ain’t a good reason. But say he had been slain by Diablo, or the hydra, or even mauled to death by a pack of dogs. That would have been that. Hoisted by his own petard, his idiocy was the death of him, end of story. The extra episode would have been a waste, aside from some ecchi—which was sexual assault, by the way. Yes, I’m going to call it what it is, no, I don’t care if that bothers you, and no, I don’t care if you whine about SJW crap. Stories matter, and a spade oughta be called a spade. You can even enjoy the comedic/ecchi aspects while holding the contradictory notion that it’s not okay in your mind. We humans contain multitudes. But spade, re: spade.
Also, getting drunk doesn’t happen that quickly! It needs time to absorb into the bloodstream! And who drinks what looks like a spirit from a mug? Other than the cast of Grand Blue, of course.
But what the story did, instead of giving Keera one of those lackluster deaths, was have Galford kill him. And that’s excellent, because while wild dogs need no characterization, Galford could use it. It showed us more of who Galford is, and gave us the hands-down best battle of the series so far. I mean, the hydra? It ended with “Diablo does a big nuke.” The moving core didn’t add anything since he coulda just done that anyway. But the Galford battle was good. There was tactics, strategy, reversals, the whole shebang. It was nice. It once again makes me think that this series is being written by a man who could do so much better, but sometimes it’s fun to watch/read/write a trashy show. I’ma still call it out, but over all, this episode delivered more than I expected. That’s good. We’ll need more Galford battles if Isekai Maou is to pull out of its slump and get back to being the top-quality trashy isekai harem fun it was early on.
Random thoughts:
- But seriously, do the Japanese not learn about the hydra? Is the regeneration gimmick a surprise to them? Not that it factored in heavily, but still. I’m curious.
- What’s it say that the only full-size image I did was of a liquor bottle? Something fantastic, clearly. Suddenly I feel like some amaretto…
My SECOND novel, Freelance Heroics, is available now! (Now in print!) (Also available: Firesign #1 Wage Slave Rebellion.) Sign up for my email list for updates. At stephenwgee.com, the latest post: Risk Tolerance in the Creative Life.
Full-length images: 28.
Preview
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https://randomc.net/image/Isekai%20Maou%20to%20Shoukan%20Shoujo%20no%20Dorei%20Majutsu/Isekai%20Maou%20to%20Shoukan%20Shoujo%20no%20Dorei%20Majutsu%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
I was watching this show yesterday and forgot I had the window open. My neighbour was in his garden and probably thinks I watch porn now. I know I said a few weeks back that I was sorry for people who watched their anime with headphones, but now I think maybe they have at least one advantage!
A nice touch with the ED too, Sylvie replacing Edelgard.
i was wrong
it took Maou 2 spells to finish off the superhydra
but the bait-and-switch villain was quite nice surprise, complete wityh opponent that actually made Diablo sweat – and bleed, no less!
I think we haven’t seen the last of Galford yet, and not even necessarily as villain…
He showed concern for his troops, and knew when to retreat, which is more than most antagonists are capable of. He might end up allying with Diablo yet to thwart some other threat…
Also he has some nice political acumen, from using the Elven excursion as casus belli to making use of influence to the throne of the kingdom, which thankfull,y was deftly parried by our Imperial Knight… way to go girl! Too bad she is off town due to that now, I really would love to see more of her – nad interactions with Rem in aprticular…
I am quite conflicted about ending ecchi-scene
alcohol is no excuse – although guildmistress kinda brought it on herself by making Diablo drink it, she did not deserve to be treated as hug pillow…
what the scene lacked was Shera and/or Rem barging in and stopping Maou in some sort of comedic violence/jealousy
The scene was supposed to end with a very angry Rem dropping the hammer on Diablo right after he sobered up and realized what was going on. Guess someone thought that was getting repetitive.
Umm, no. You probably got it mixed with what happened in one of the following novels.
Show Spoiler ▼
That didn’t happen in this scene. The Sylvie scene ended exactly as we saw it.
Nope. That’s not how it works. He should have drank less quickly, or less period, if he thought there was a chance he couldn’t hold his liquor. Still his fault 100%.
In reality I would agree with you but this is all kinds of fiction that real morals don’t factor into.
But they do. Fiction is how we learn to be human. That means morals too. They don’t factor in with the same weight, since Sylvie isn’t a real person who can be harmed, but harm done to a fictional character can influence how real people treat other real people. That doesn’t mean it was immoral in any way to include this scene, but it does mean I’ma call it what it is, and when someone says “[she] kinda brought it on herself”, I’m going to push back on that strongly, because that’s exactly what I’m talking about. That’s the lesson culture, of which fiction is a part, is so often teaching us, and it needs to be called out so real people aren’t treated like that. (And it needs to be taught less often, so when a scene like this pops up, we can laugh at it for what it intends and move on.)
Which ain’t to call anyone a villain. I’ve said wrong things like that before myself. But people called me out on it, or I realized they were wrong after the fact, and I got better. That’s how we all get better, me thinks.
Simple logic, here, had she not brought the alcohol, nothing would have happened, and she could have just left it and say, drink it after I leave.
We will have the H-scene with Shera or Rem insted then?
Whoever brings alcohol to table, better be prepared for drunken people, acting, well , drunk.
Alcohol both lowers the levels of morals and common sense.
Part of why it has been popular in human culture…
Though the effect of a single cup was totally exaggerated here…
Even with Diablo being not accustomed to drinking (does player trait rub off on character here?)
Let’s just say that the fault is all…umm, liquor’s.
ewok40k: It doesn’t work like that. People who do bad things while intoxicated can’t pull the “I was intoxicated” card as an excuse. They did something wrong regardless, and they have to own up to it. Plain and simple.
Besides, no. You can’t really predict what exactly an intoxicated person will do. So simple logic my ass.
I think I understand what you mean. Instead of Keera get the snot beat out of by Diablo or his women or the Hydra, he gets killed by the man who uses his idiocy as an excuse to wipe out his kind. Its safe to say that not only he died as a coward but his legacy would only be that he nearly brought about his race’s extinction.
I also liked that Diablo decides to use his brains. He lacks confidence on the new mechanics but his experience in the games makes up for that and it works.
We’re back to the 2-boss formula that has been
the strength of this series (reference episode 4).
A good episode, but no a great episode mainly because
we suddenly arrived here; there was no elegant build
up to the fantastic fight scene like there was leading
to episode 4. All is NOT forgiven for wasting my time
from those last three episodes – and I have to admit,
the ecchi at the end of this episode was spot on this
time for the characters involved.
I just hope the remainder of the series continues along
these lines and doesn’t go all goofey like it has…
A “good” reason? Maybe not. But an understandable one: that’s another question entirely. I think Shera’s final words after everything is done explained it pretty well. She hated her brother for what he did, but there was a time when the two of them really had been family, and had loved each other. She hated him… but she hadn’t wanted their parting to happen like this.
In fact that’s exactly what’s going on. Isekai Maou (etc. etc.) is what we get when an author who actually knows how to write decently decides to create a trashy ecchi isekai for fun in his spare time.
My thoughts exactly. It happens every time in real life: even the worst criminals may have loved ones who, while not condoning their acts, don’t want to see them suffer. It may also happen with their victims, as sadly too many cases of domestic abuse can prove. Family is one of those ties, and there’s a reason the “blood is thicker than water” theme is as old as civilization.
In fact, given Shera’s character, had she said “yeah, off with his head” (or even “yeah, take him in chains to face his punishment”), it would have been jarring and out-of-character in comparison.
I mean, you’re not wrong that it woulda been jarring if Shera hadn’t said what she said, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t being foolish. That was more what I was pointing out. Good reinforcement that it was in character, though.
Jeah that threw me off quite a bit. If they atleast stopped while he only hugged her…
Well this depends if we are in a real world or a real world which is modeled after a virtual one.
Most of the mechanics are still the same to the virtual one our MC is familiar with and in most games you instantly gain the a drunk status if you drink alcohol. So this isn’t so far off.
Everything seems to point toward a real world that just so happens to have the magic system/map/etc of Cross Reverie. Thus, I’ma treat it as such until proven otherwise. Getting drunk too fast—like getting drunk off juice or caffeine or alcohol chocolates—is an old trope, so it’s not surprising, it’s just one that’s always annoyed me personally.
And yeah, if it had stopped at hugging/snuggling, it wouldn’t have been exactly good, but it could have been more clearly funny without being a friggin’ crime. The show is nothing if not consistent in its loyalty to ecchi above all else, I suppose.
Actually I did manage to get drunk with only one shot of (can’t remember what kind of drink) once. The effect did kick in almost immediately. Still maintain enough self control to crawl to my bed though, but then again I only drank one shot, while Diablo emptied a whole mug…
Finally, the episode I was waiting for animated!
The Diable X Bunny Girl Bed scene~!
Going at it like rabbits taken to a whole different level
I think with the drinking, there was a slight pause there before the effects of the alcohol and then we immediately go to what Diablo sees. There might’ve been some time that had passed (as indicated by his drink actually being gone).
I always assume that the person getting drunk off of one glass that there’s actually a period of time that occurs before they get drunk. Just because to wait the actual amount of time for that glass to hit would’ve been quite long.
Then again, we could go with the game mechanics where someone gets drunk immediately. If the world is based on Cross Riviere, you can get drunk pretty quick. Also let’s not forget that Diablo was drained via MP. Because the alcohol has an MP refresh in it and Diablo is without MP, it could mean that his metabolism spikes and so that’s why it absorbs the alcohol that much faster to regain his MP.
I think it would be really interesting if it went more in depth on that part. Would make for an interesting read, I think.
You’re trying to justify it, when the real answer is “This is an old trope and we don’t feel we have to do this properly.” As I said above, it’s an old trope. Not surprising, but it is annoying. If they wanted to signal time passing, there are plenty of ways to do that, but they didn’t. Thus, no time should be assumed to have passed. It’s probably intended to heighten the comedy, it’s just a trope that’s always annoyed me, and since it’s used to justify him groping an unwilling woman… Not ideal.
I never said anything concerning what happens after Diablo is drunk. I only spoke about how Diablo got drunk quickly and how it would be an interesting if the story would actually study the effects of how this world has a different set of rules concerning metabolism, rather than MP.
I just assume a passage of time due to the fact we get over to Diablo’s point of view. All I was justifying is the laziness of passage of time and what I said before. It would be interesting to showcase how this world is different from Cross Riviere and our own in this regard.
I’m depressed that you took it as I’m trying to justify the trope and the situation of what Diablo did. That is not something I was trying to justify, because it can’t be. Nor was I going to attempt to even bother defending, because it can’t be. Nor did I find funny, because it wasn’t.
Naw, I wasn’t accusing you of trying to justify anything other’n him getting drunk unrealistically quickly. Like I said, they didn’t use any fades or anything, so we aren’t meant to assume time has passed. You assuming that anyway just means you can enjoy something which annoyed me, so while it might not be accurate, it’s probably smarter on your part, haha
Well, to be fair…
Show Spoiler ▼
Stilts edit: Fixed spoiler tags.
https://randomc.net/image/Isekai%20Maou%20to%20Shoukan%20Shoujo%20no%20Dorei%20Majutsu/Isekai%20Maou%20to%20Shoukan%20Shoujo%20no%20Dorei%20Majutsu%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
I can’t imagine how the elf kingdom would survive if this idiot prince had become king. My prediction, if war occurred, the elves would lose and be turned into slaves. And the female elves would be treated the same way we would see in dark hentai.
Is there only One elf kingdom or are there multiple elf kingdoms in this world. Most anime, I have seen, often imply that there is only One elf kingdom in the entire world. Which is sad if it implies that humans, which have multiple kings, are able to procreate faster compare to elves.
Bunny cunny bunny cunny~